3.
Chairman’s report
I would like to personally acknowledge the efforts of the individuals involved in this
successful project and the support of AARNet (APL) to provide me with an opportunity to
achieve much more than I could have as an individual for Flinders University. I have been
able to oversee an enthusiastic group of individuals who have created a tremendous new
service for the sector.
My vision has always been to build on the booking system (which I’ve seen as a first step to
encourage greater access and ease of use) via parallel work to influence key vendors and
communities at a strategic level to engage and work in partnership with the R&E sector, to
set out multiple paths to deliver a range of future services. These services include support
for universal access (via ISDN/IP/Peer-to-Peer networks) to video applications and services
that are accessible from traditional VC endpoints (standard/high def, TP) and desktop video
conferencing systems (webcams). Video conferencing should be seen as a vital tool for
distance learning, delivering services to rural and remote communities and to facilitate
research.
Knowing the high capability and performance of AARNet3, our sector is investing in video
conferencing technology to improve academic excellence and research. The challenge for all
of us is to keep abreast of our investments, to share that knowledge and expertise and to
work together to drive down price points and/or create value added on.net accessible
services. AARNet continue to be a unique player with 38 universities and CSIRO as its
shareholders. It is my belief that we should invest in AARNet by supporting project groups
to provide personal development opportunities for our staff, to add value for our customers,
and/or take advantage of efficiencies that can be realised.
A special mention needs to be made of Paul Wagner from the Australian Catholic University
and Greg Donhardt of Flinders University who were voted as the MVPs (Most Valuable
Participants) by the project team. The achievements of the group have confirmed my long
term belief that sector wide solutions and volume purchasing can work with the right
strategic partnerships and planning.
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I would like to thank Codian (Tandberg) staff for their flexibility and patience in overcoming
the many obstacles encountered in this project. I hope that with the Tandberg acquisition
of Codian, the partnership will be stronger and widen to include the Tandberg users at APL
member institutes.
Thank you to AARNet for their human and financial resources to the project to support the
project group and to proceed with flexibility to purchase a management platform and HD
MCU (including associated hardware) in a timely manner, to ensure the pilot service was
accessible as an on.net service.
The following report will outline the achievements of the group that far surpassed the
original intention to review the previous APL Video Conferencing booking service. The
ability of the group to work together and achieve so much is quite remarkable when
considering their work load associated with the dramatic increase in dependencies of the
audio visual services needed in the teaching environment at universities today. It is a credit
to the project team that most members have agreed to continue their regular monthly
meetings via video conference to work with AARNet to continually improve the service that
has been created.
As the project nears completion there is a vital need to raise the awareness of the
service across the university sector and surrounding environments, I would like to
see a marketing plan which includes a top down approach from CAUDIT & APL to ensure the
hard work and financial benefits are not wasted.
You will see in the feedback section there is still a need for continued use of ISDN
(Integrated Services Digital Network) video conferencing services to include those less
fortunate when it comes to access to bandwidth availability. Some people will claim ISDN is
too expensive, but for remote & rural sites, access to reasonable bandwidth & IP services is
too expensive especially so for occasional video conferences that require low latency and
jitter via a synchronous network connection, ISDN is the only option. ISDN out dial services
are particularly necessary to provide video conference access for sites with little or no
technical support. (See ISDN Gateway proposal in appendix 8).
Some conclusions and observations for consideration in planning future projects
are:
1. Face to face meetings were more productive in collaboration than the monthly VC
meetings. This realisation contradicts some of the benefits expected from the
increased use of VC but should be considered when planning projects from a
budgetary perspective.
2. Attendance list to be included in reports to the AAC and to members
management/directors to keep the project benefits and profile high.
3. Individual personal development was obvious as the team became familiar with each
other, significant knowledge sharing was evident.
4. A pragmatic focus on solving a specific business need within a short time frame is
key for future project group selections. With hindsight it can often take
approximately 5 months worth of planning before a group is formed, and a similar
time thereafter to develop a pilot service.
5. A greater awareness of the academic calendar and member time pressures on
support teams in project planning, development, deployment and operation should
be developed.
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6. A collective approach from the sector has yielded more leverage and influence from
vendors to take notice and address issues raised by the group.
Project summary
a. August 2006 First discussion took place
b. November 2006 2 day planning meeting with AARNet/Flinders
c. February 2007 AAC approval of the new group
d. April 11th 2007 First Face- 2-Face meeting of the new MCU Review Group
e. May 2007 Codian announced the release of the Codian®
Management PlatformTM (CMP) in the USA, the release
included a section outlining AARNet’s intention to use the
product to decentralise the scheduling of conferences
across the sector to improve and simplify the use of the
AARNet MCU hosted service.
f. July 2007 Launch of pilot booking service at Questnet 2007 (issues
were still being identified)
g. September 2007 First RTC Road show training
h. January 2008 Move to redundant servers for production readiness
i. April 2008 Final Report to AAC
In closing I would like to acknowledge the effort and support I received from James Sankar
whose passion and desire for perfection was admirable.
Steve Cox
Chair, MCU Review Project Group
Flinders University
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Executive Summary
This report presents 18 months of work by AARNet, a number of universities with
Codian MCUs and Codian/Tandberg. A combined effort has yielded an innovative
booking and bridging solution that is easy to use and has a cascading MCU feature
to increase access to a greater capacity of MCU ports. This is particularly important
today as trends suggest a greater number of standard to high definition video
endpoints and desktop web cams will impact on MCU capacity as users expect to
hold multi-site conferences.
The project group delivered beyond its remit with additional AARNet funding to
deliver a solution within an 18 month timeframe (6 months pre-planning, 12
months duration of the project group). In many cases, members worked outside of
normal business hours and met at times on weekly and fortnightly intervals
(including weekends) and that should be commended. The short term project
group approach has required a significant collaboration effort. It has motivated
staff and provided personal development and human networking opportunities.
Today, AARNet and its customers have access to a resilient management platform
for conference booking and bridging services. It is currently being built on to
deliver recording services, high quality streaming services, a pilot ISDN service, and
a quality assurance scheme for endpoints to register themselves to AARNet’s MCU
(and participating MCUs) so that MCUs can dial out to them to connect to a
conference.
As the group closes, it will continue to meet on an informal basis to track spin off
work and the progress of the current MCU and booking services.
Vendor support was invaluable to the group's success, it was also a huge learning
curve to work with a vendor to design and develop a new solution.
Overall the benefits have outweighed the costs but going forward will require a
more vendor agnostic approach to deliver services that support a wider range of
MCUs and endpoints.
The MCU Group has prepared the following recommendations
• The current booking and bridging pilot service should be officially recognised as a
production service once the CMP redundant servers are located at redundant PoPs
and both AARNet MCU servers are on AARNet3 and located at redundant PoPs. The
current H.323/IP and ISDN (in-dial only) services should be managed by AARNet and
provided as a value add service to AARNet connected customers, funded from on.net
subscriptions (as is the case today).
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• The MCU Review group wishes to continue to meet informally via video on a monthly
basis to exchange news, provide feedback on the production service and
advice/guidance on spin off work.
• AARNet should start work to plan for the development of a future platform by
assessing the market and establishing a new group to deliver a replacement post
2009 (when Codian/Tandberg ceases to support the current solution).
• AARNet should explore an ISDN dial in, dial out services as a 12 month pilot to
assess demand and costs to operate it, a joining fee and prepay solution to cover
credit against hop off ISDN costs is recommended.
• AARNet should support a new project group to address desktop video conferencing
and carbon footprint calculators for video conference use, where possible it should
involve a wider AARNet community base.
• Telepresence should be tracked and considered if a solution is delivered at a
reasonable price point based on open standards with integration to build on
investments made in room based; desktop based standard and high definition video
solutions.
The MCU review project group has completed its work on time, and with additional
AARNet funding to cover a greater scope and delivered the new service within
budget.
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8.
1. Overview
This report covers the work of the MCU Review group (2006-2008). The group was
created as a result of past work completed by IPTEL and VIDEO working groups that
identified the need for a user-friendly, scalable conferencing bridge and automated
booking service. The MCU review project group was tasked to review AARNet’s
existing conference booking systems and MCU resources purchased by AARNet and
other institutions.
After initial investigations, two vendors (Face-to-Face communications (acquired by
Codian Plc) and Codian Plc (acquired by Tandberg) joined the group along with a
number of Australian Universities. The group promptly expanded the scope of work
to move from a review to the building of a solution for users to securely and easily
book and access conferences, and for administrators to manage their MCUs,
endpoints and shared resources. This report details how these services were
designed, developed, implemented and operated as a pilot service. It also provides
recommendations on future work.
2. Acknowledgements
This report would like to acknowledge the investment of time and effort from all
those who contributed to the group, including
• David Badger - Flinders University • David Jericho - AARNet
• Tanya Ballat - AARNet • Matt Rendell - Flinders
• Arno Besse - Ballarat University University
• Jason Bordujenko – AARNet • James Sankar – AARNet
• Mark Chatburn – Australian National • Peter Schwenke – Codian /
University Tandberg
• Steve Cox - Chair, Flinders University • Kewin Stoeckigt - AARNet
• Greg Donhardt - Flinders University • David Taylor – Codian /
• Simon Downey - Codian/Tandberg Tandberg
• Dean Gray - Deakin University • Travis Terry - Charles Sturt
• Chris McKay - Codian/Tandberg University
• Roy Meuronen – Australian National • Paul Wagner - Australian
University Catholic University
• Steve Neville - Codian/Tandberg
• Rod Ibell - University of Southern
Queensland
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3. Aims & Objectives
The original aim of the group was to review the current AARNet MCU bridging
service and make recommendations to improve usability. The group negotiated with
Codian to deliver a sector wide deal of an unlimited licence on the Codian
Management Platform (CMP) coupled with access to Codian technical expertise to
build an easy 1-2-3 interface for a new booking system. The benefits of this new
arrangement were that a new solution built with Codian would maximize the value
of existing Codian MCUs already owned by AARNet and participating universities to
encourage wider adoption and use of multi-site video conferencing.
Specific improvements that were identified were
1. Access to shared ports of Codian standard and high definition MCUs (AARNet
and participating universities) – useful when MCUs are at high capacity
(peak load) or out of service.
2. Access to an intuitive and secure booking system for end users, with options
to integrate with calendaring systems.
3. CAVE (Coordinator of Audio Video Equipment) access to validate new users
and be alerted by email to and view conference bookings, to better support
and manage videoconferencing across the sector.
4. Access to training on how to book, schedule and operate multi-site video
conferences (primarily aimed at the CAVE community) via the MCU bridges.
5. Access to improved reporting information on actual use of video
conferencing resources (bridging services, rooms etc).
4 Progress against Milestones
A number of tasks were completed to achieve the aims and objectives of the group,
these were
4.1. Initiate project group
Work started in 2006 to test a proof-of-concept between AARNet & Flinders
University. Once achieved, work was completed to establish the group (agree on
chairpersons, agree on charter and work plan). Almost six months of planning was
required to ensure the group was able to start with benefits identified upfront. A
pragmatic approach was taken to work with an existing vendor (Codian) to leverage
off AARNet and other Codian sites across the sector. Codian subsequently
introduced Face-to-Face communications, a software applications development
company to create a simplified booking system. The inclusion of Codian meant that
the group were able to (a) gain access to a sector wide unlimited Codian
Management Platform licence to manage Codian MCUs and a range of video end
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points; (b) gain access to discounted rates on High and Standard Definition MCUs,
ISDN Gateways and (c) gain access to software developer expertise. In return
Codian had access to an informed user base to develop and test their products. It
was a win-win-win for AARNet, its customers and Codian. It was also
acknowledged upfront that the mid to long term desire was to create a vendor
agnostic booking system that could ideally support a variety of video conferencing
bridges, ISDN gateways, endpoints and recording systems.
4.2. Review current services to act as a benchmark for new services
A review of the in-house developed AARNet booking system identified it as
complex, based partly on a manual process, with no access controls, no pre-
registration and no automated email notification to CAVEs to validate new users or
notify them of conference bookings at their institution. These gaps were gathered
to define requirements for a new solution.
The AARNet conferencing bridge service was delivered as a free pilot service. As it
often just worked (with manual intervention at times) it became accepted as a
production service that was freely available as a value add service to AARNet
customers.
Other NRENs such as JANET and SURFNet offer similar services, however they are
fortunate to receive Government funding to deploy and operate such services.
AARNet has had to rely on a margin in its charging model to support the service.
In the USA, services are provided for a fee as part of a suite of applications and
services under an InCommons arrangement. REANNZ (NZ NREN) have recently
embarked on a similar pilot service where they have charged universities for the
cost of the bridge by a combination of capital and on-going costs being paid for by
their customers. AARNet has decided to operate the bridging and booking service
as value add for its customers to encourage greater adoption and use and to
minimise administration in billing with a best effort level of support.
4.3. Purchase, configure, implement and operate a management platform
This section covers the installation of the management platform to manage the
cascading of Codian MCUs and the development of a simple to use booking system
and a range of other advanced and extendible features and services.
a Codian Management Platform installation
The initial installation was onto a standalone Hewlett Packard (HP) server. Two
Acer Servers were then purchased to provide redundancy and to comply with
AARNet’s own server hardware policy. Migration to the Acer Servers identified
firmware and hardware problems with BIOS and RAID systems, this delayed the
project.
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As a contingency measure, a single HP server was upgraded to the latest version of
CMP, and physically moved from Codian to the AARNet3 network, it was rigorously
tested in time for demonstration and launch at the Questnet 2007 conference (July
2007).
The redundant Acer servers were brought into commission on Q1/2008 with a
manual fail-over solution put in place. The requirement for redundancy was a
valuable driver to Codian’s own product development, where 10+ software
upgrades on CMP software version 2.1 were made. Today, the CMP system works
well on AARNet3, with no down time experienced so far.
b. MCU cascading
Managing separate MCUs at institutions from a single management platform
enabled the 1-2-3 booking system to be delivered in a secure, scalable, policy
based automated way. For example a user from Flinders University would be
allocated ports on the Flinders MCU first, followed by access to a pool of other MCU
ports if the Flinders University MCU was at full capacity or unreachable. The
cascading functionality provides an extra layer of MCU system redundancy for any
scheduled or unscheduled outages.
The group agreed on a minimum 30% resource port allocation of each participating
MCU to be shared exclusively by the group. Those users from institutions without
a participating Codian MCU could still access the booking system but would only
gain access to the AARNet MCU ports. This was a necessary incentive to
encourage Codian MCU owners to participate. It is hoped that the shared port
allocation will increase with new members and will in turn increase port resources
on the Codian reward system. AARNet will continue to monitor access and use of
the service, to determine its ongoing benefit to the sector.
CMP also manages endpoints and will be leveraged to support them via a quality
assurance scheme provided by AARNet during 2008. Quality assurance is
necessary to deliver enhanced services such as dial out IP and ISDN video
conferencing from an MCU and access to video recording systems (IPVCR). Where
registered end points are known to be HD capable, policies will be added to
prioritise allocation on HD MCUs to maximise the experience for end users.
CMP was also explored to add and manage non-Codian MCUs, however as some
MCUs dynamically allocate ports that are bound together to improve quality, the
allocation of available ports becomes much harder to schedule. Although Face-to-
Face and Codian both had development plans to support other MCUs, the
acquisition of Face-to-Face Communications by Codian and then Codian by
Tandberg meant that the opportunity and likelihood of those plans being
implemented changed over time and were not implemented. Current work has
focused on development to support both Codian and Tandberg MCU and
management platform products which could become a value add to the current
investment made by the group to date.
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Measurement and monitoring of two redundant servers that support CMP has been
established via AARNet’s Nagios monitoring system so that changes in the server
status (up/down) will automatically generate email or SMS notification to AARNet
so that if necessary a manual fail over process can be initiated. Future solutions
would expect automatic failover to be supported.
c. Advanced interface - Codian Management Platform (CMP)
Behind the 1-2-3 booking system application is an advanced interface. It offers
access to a wide range of features in an Outlook like calendar view. The advanced
view allows users and administrators to gain access to select registered end points
and access to resources (rooms) for a video conference, it offers greater control of
the conference layout and access to record a conference (soon to be enabled by
AARNet).
d. Enterprise Calendar Integration
Some universities have already deployed enterprise calendar based scheduling
systems to organise meetings and access to shared rooms and video conferencing
services. In those cases yet another calendaring system/solution would be
unacceptable. Instead work began to explore how CMP could integrate with
enterprise scheduling systems to maintain them at the front end and take
advantage of access to additional MCU capacity and resilience at the back end in a
transparent way. Some universities are also exploring integration of their specific
calendaring system via external consultants.
Experiences within the group have been varied as follows
At the University of Ballarat, all rooms across the campuses are booked using
Syllabus PlusTM. It has been difficult if not impossible to have staff use a different
system. A proposal has been made to rename all Video Conference rooms and
remove them from the current system to be then available only in CMP. This
proposal may be reconsidered pending the Tandberg acquisition which has made
the future of CMP uncertain. Training staff in the use of yet another system would
be highly unlikely.
Representatives from the Australian National University have been monitoring
progress of the MCU project with interest. However, active use of the new booking
system and MCU pooling has been limited, primarily due to resource limitations and
competing priorities. Further work needs to be done by the university to enable
their video conferencing infrastructure to connect with the AARNET space,
particularly in the area of numbering and dial plans. They see the work of the MCU
project as being valuable and look forward to getting the opportunity to fully
explore the benefits of the booking and pooling systems.
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At Flinders University the Codian Management Platform was initially implemented within
the Information Services Division. The system was evaluated, tested and implemented for
use by the School of Medicine (SoM). Flinders University saw value in a very simplified video
conference booking system. Its simplicity and ease of use reduced the cumbersome and
manual booking system used in the past.
The SoM are the greatest users of video conferencing, using the system for consulting with
medical students and staff in remote locations/country hospitals. Unfortunately a majority of
these sites rely on ISDN for their video conferencing experience; as such the CMP
implementation did not support ISDN out dial services. The School of Medicine was
restricted to using an existing bridging service at Flinders University with ISDN capabilities.
Flinders University is currently investigating a pilot service with AARNet to deliver ISDN in
dial and out dial services via CMP as a follow on development activity.
Flinders University has been unable to integrate its calendar system with CMP; this is largely
due to there being no unified calendaring system across campuses. This makes it very
difficult to utilise the plug-in functionality of CMP or conversely to utilise CMP as part of a
unified calendaring system for end users. A Flinders University project to evaluate Uniwide
collaboration products should provide the opportunity to revisit integration with CMP (or its
replacement) in the next 12 months.
At The Australian Catholic University National, the Codian Management Platform was
implemented campus wide from the first semester of 2008. A previous system was unable
to allow the client to check if a time and date were available. A trial by the ACU National
Service Management Team gave read only access to CMP to check booking times and dates
for clients. As the trial continued, a group of lecturers were given similar privileges. As that
trial period progressed, clients were then able to view current conferences themselves.
Promotion of the new service was achieved via an IT newsletter, instructions on the ACU
National video conference web site and via a general Client Service Management e-mail to
general staff. Three guides were created for different types of users (Video Conference
Coordinator - add and modify endpoints, bridges and other conference peripherals; Super
User guide - add, modify and delete bookings; User guide - how to view the calendar to
check on bookings or check availability for additional conferences). As more clients take
advantage of the video conference service for both meetings and lectures, ports on the ACU
National Codian MCU will head towards full capacity, rather than buying another Codian
MCU, participation in the MCU Review Group means that The ACU National now has access
to over 100 ports, thereby increasing the service capacity for clients at no extra cost. The
implementation of the CMP has given clients a secure and user-friendly interface to book
conferences and has reduced the time taken to process a video conference request.
e. ISDN VC services
AARNet currently support ISDN in-dial via an ISDN gateway located at Canberra. The
reason for not supporting out dial ISDN was due to costs to administer and bill back to
customers. Flinders University and Ballarat have identified a requirement for ISDN Video
Conferencing out dial services to connect to sites where access to high speed IP networks is
not available and where access to technical expertise at those sites is limited. An
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opportunity has emerged for them to provide ISDN video conferencing services and scale a
pilot service for the Australian R&E sector at the same time. AARNet, Flinders University,
The University of Ballarat and Codian/Tandberg have formed an informal group to design,
test and pilot an ISDN video conferencing service for the sector. This spin off work from the
MCU group will determine the costs and demand of a pilot in-dial and out-dial ISDN video
conferencing service to determine whether an outsourced pilot service can be sustained as a
production service thereafter.
f. Shibboleth/AAF support in future release
No time has been available to shibbolise the booking system application, this is because the
priority has been to ensure that the application performs as expected and that it is robust
and resilient. The use of Zimbra in the backend was seen as a positive step forward in
embracing web 2.0 technologies and with some investment in application development for
middleware integration, it should support shibboleth. Zimbra has a “Preauth” feature.
Preauth stands for pre- authentication, and is a mechanism to enable a trusted third party
to "vouch" for a user's identity. For example, if a user has already signed into a portal and
wants to enter the mail application, they should not have to be prompted again for their
password.
This can be accomplished by having the mail link they click on in the portal construct a
special URL and redirect the user to the Zimbra server, which will then verify the data
passed in the URL and create authentication token (the standard mechanism within Zimbra
to identify users), save it in a cookie, and redirect the user to the mail app. This mechanism
has been used to allow CAS (the Central Authentication Service developed by Yale
University) to handle accesses to the Zimbra application. It appears that CAS can also be
configured to use Shibboleth as its federated Identity Provider. This may be one solution for
a future release.
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4.4. Develop and operate a user-friendly “1-2-3” booking system
AARNet has offered a free MCU video conferencing pilot service to its customers since
2003. It was based on an in house solution, the interface of that system can be seen
below
Fig 1: Original AARNet developed booking system
The booking system allowed users to set a conference time, number of participants,
conference type, and screen layout to be selected, it supported conferences on the AARNet
MCU only. It required some manual processes to reset the system after 10 bookings had
been received in order for the system to remain operational. There were no authentication
controls, it was open and free to use, and there was no reporting available to administrators
or users, that was only available via the MCU system which was not able to support report
generation at that time.
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The MCU review Group identified the need for an automated, easy-to-use, intuitive video
conference booking system. It would need to be publicly accessible from anywhere, with
users registering to use it, backed up by CAVEs or AARNet to validate them and then
contact them to support them. The solution also required an AARNet "look and feel".
Registered users would be able to book conferences or edit/delete conferences they have
previously created. The group decided to adopt an easy to use 1-2-3 approach for booking
conferences where (1) is log in, (2) is book a conference and (3) receive confirmation of
that conference in an email to pass onto others. Conferences have been limited to be dial in
only for IP and ISDN video conferencing. A dial in H.323/IP video conference service was
necessary in the absence of an end point quality assurance scheme. Such a scheme is
necessary to ensure all network components are able to support in dial and out dial services
to/from MCUs. AARNet are working to deliver such a service in 2008. Only dial in ISDN
video conferencing has been supported to date, as dial out services incur admin and billing
overheads. Work is underway on both fronts to enhance the current service to
accommodate IP and ISDN out dial services from the MCU.
Codian in consultation with the group members developed the CMP 1-2-3, as follows
Fig 2: User login screen
Registered users type in their username, select their institution from a drop down list of
participating institutions and enter their password (see Fig 2). There are links to
documentation and a facility to reset forgotten passwords.
The conference booking screen (Fig 3) allows users to create a conference name, start/end
times, add a PIN for security, indicate no. of endpoints for the conference (to allocate a port
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per endpoint), H.329 support (for desktop apps such as PowerPoint slides to be viewed by
all participants), and any relevant comments for an administrator to know. Once those
details have been inputted and the Create button selected, the conference is created and a
notification sent by email. Currently the max number of conferences stored is for 7 days
ahead, feedback from the pilot suggests this should be expanded to a longer duration to
avoid users from mistakenly believing the conference wasn't created causing some to create
another one leading to confusion. There is an option to go to an advanced screen which
offers a greater range of features.
Fig 3: The conference booking screen
The CMP is able to allocate E.164 conference numbers (for dial in) to each booking based on
the MCU selected, details are distributed via email of additional information on how to
connect to the conference, notification of the booking request is sent to local coordinator(s)
to alert them to the request.
4.5. Agree on a framework for the operation of the pilot (services framework)
A services framework was written to set the ground rules for the pilot service to ensure the
smooth operation of the service amongst various stakeholders and scalability, security and
usability. Three documents were produced to accommodate a framework, one for end users,
one for administrators and one for technical staff. These documents are available online at
http://www.aarnet.edu.au/Content.aspx?p=162
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4.6. Run pilot and update/enhance based on feedback
a. Testing of 1-2-3 & CMP
MCU Review Group had a list of specified features to test on CMP and on the 1-2-3
booking system. It involved all participants to ensure that each MCU was correctly
configured to allow access to shared ports and E.164 numbers. Tests took place
initially on HP server hardware with various software iterations made, then on Acer
servers to conduct performance and functionality tests and redundancy and fail
over. Tests took place in July 2007 and January 2008. The tests covered (a) to
book, modify and delete conferences using 1-2-3; (b) to test call establishment with
and without H239 support; (c) tests on sharing ports cascading between MCUs, and
(d) on system performance and stability. Testing revealed an email/DNS related
issue (SPAM protection) which meant the group had to reconfigure the user
authentication system with new sub domains of @[inst name].nvcs.edu.au. This
caused a 6 week delay in deploying the service with email notifications for end
users. Browser inconsistency in system views led to support restricted to specific
versions of Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, with browser detection built into
the application to inform users using other browsers that the application is not
supported on it.
b. Pilot Launch & Training
By the end of September 2007 both the CMP and 1-2-3 applications had been
tested and installed ready for piloting. The system was open for self registrations
and documentation was released to the AARNet web site.
From late September to mid-October 2007 a team of AARNet staff travelled to five
states to introduce, promote and provide training on the new service as part of the
AARNet Real Time Communications Road show. Attendees were shown the booking
system and an overview on how CAVEs would be expected to provide first line
support to end users at their home institutions. Training was well received. See
appendix 7 for more details on how training was delivered.
Fig 4: Perth Road show – CMP booking training session
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19.
c. The Pilot operation
Both systems have been operating in full production since July 2007. The system
has been stable. Redundant server hardware was achieved in early 2008. There
has been full availability with no down time other than for scheduled maintenance
to date. The CAVE national support network has been trained and acts as first level
support. Details on how to register, how to use, and FAQ documentation was made
available on the AARNet web site.
The current architecture is deployed can be seen below
Fig 5: Current Architecture
An online survey1 was created to encourage users to provide feedback, despite
efforts to promote the survey via mailing lists, the website and presentations. Most
of the replies were from members of the group. Only one reply was received from
The University of Melbourne who found the system easy to use and has
recommended it to others. The only comment for improvement was that
“It would be good to have a dedicated recording unit available that starts
and stops the recording with the meeting. Then an automated email sent
with a link to the recorded file. At the moment when I try to add the IPVCR
1
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=3ndA6Qk0McP0KrieJ22ygw_3d_3d
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20.
in the main page (and also under 'find resources' it says that none are
available.”
This is being addressed; equipment is on order to provide this service mid 2008.
A search on the Internet revealed positive comments at http://drop.io/aarnetau as
follows
We had our first conference with the bridge last night and it worked
extremely well. The booking system is great and very easy to use. It’s a
fantastic service.
Mon 25 Feb 2008 - 05:29 PM
Your MCU system is an absolute gem - simple, clear, easy to use and a great
backup service if you are moronic enough to forget your password! Good
work.
Wed 20 Feb 2008 - 07:21 PM
I gave a presentation to my department today (we are having a review of
our vidcon capabilities) and I have recommended to use the ARRNet system.
Wed 20 Feb 2008 - 07:19 PM
I have been doing some tests, and I have been very impressed so far. We
(the astronomy department) have been struggling with the video
conferencing implementation by x's IT department, and it is a refreshing
change to try a system which works the way it should be. Congratulations on
an excellent and very well designed system!
Wed 20 Feb 2008 - 07:19 PM
It has been disappointing to see low awareness of the work being carried out
by this group and that there is a freely available service. Now that a working
system is in place, more needs to be done to promote the service to AARNet
customers and their customers (e.g. staff and students).
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21.
Fig 6: AARNet MCU statistics
As at the time of writing, more than 150 user login accounts had been registered on the
CMP system for booking of MCU resources. February 2008 saw a significant spike in new
user registrations to the system as university semesters re-commenced and the
requirement for bookings increased.
The out dial from the MCU to video end point features in the CMP platform will increase
during 2008/2009 with the further promotion of the system’s more advanced booking
functionality above and beyond the 1-2-3 system. Currently approximately 100 endpoints
are registered with either IP address or E164 dialing schema and an additional 10 resource
accounts exist for registering the partner MCUs and IPVCR devices in the port pool.
On the AARNet MCUs alone there were 25 conferences booked during December/January
with February 2008 reaching 30 and March 2008 increasing to 45 reflecting the ebb and
flow of the academic year as identified in the user registration trend. In hourly port terms
the conferences for 2008 to date represent 85 hours at an average of 4 users per
conference equivalent to 340 total port hours. Approximately 20% of these bookings were
on the High Definition MCU. It should be noted that these video conferences were
predominantly combining participants from desktop video and meeting room locations. It
also largely disregards AARNet’s internal use of desktop video conferencing via Cisco Call
Manager and VT Advantage that is based on point-to-point video and ad hoc conference
numbers that do not require a conference booking and as a result are not captured in the
booking system.
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22.
Fig 7: Enhanced statistics available from Codian Reporter Tool
Figure 7 depicts the conference bookings and port hours from the usage of the Charles Sturt
University MCU as presented by a Codian Reporter Tool. This metric was derived from the
Call Detail Records (CDR) of this MCU for the period 18 March 2008-22 April 2008 and
represents a combination of CMP booked and ad-hoc conferences, the extraction of the two
separate data-sets is a subject of ongoing development work between AARNet and Codian
with the preferred option being all conferences to be recorded in the CMP tool. It shows
significant use of the service within the university.
Enhancements made as a result of the pilot include the inclusion of the AARNet logo on the
login screen, support for password reset, daylight saving/time zone support; and spurious
code and bug fixes.
A requirement was identified to add another level of user, the “Super user”. This was a new
level, below admin and above user, so that a super user could login to administer and
control some features of another MCU, for example, to change layouts without the need to
contact the CAVE for access. This was identified as important in instances where
conferences are created on other MCUs that a user would be unable to get support from
their local CAVE as he/she would not have access to a participating MCU. The addition of
another profile is in progress, in the meantime, the current process requires contacting the
CAVE representative who owns that MCU.
User feedback indicated that some believed that only Access Grid was the only way to
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23.
deliver for multi-site video conferencing. This is incorrect, today’s H.323/IP solutions come
in two flavours, via a MCU (multi conference unit) or via an IP video conferencing end point
with MCU capability built to support up to 4 endpoints simultaneously for example. The
Access Grid community rely on multicast for multi site video conferencing. Though it can
scale impressively with support to access a wide range of shared applications including Grid
specific products and streaming video, work needs to continue to simplify the end user
experience to avoid reliance on an Access Grid operator. The Access Grid also relies on
open source code which is ever changing and can impact on the service, setting standards
for implementation and pre-testing to manage the service will heighten positive user
experiences and is encouraged.
4.7. Future work to enhance booking and bridging services
The future will see further enhancement to the video infrastructure to support ISDN and
desktop video services, a schematic that may emerge can be seen below
Fig 8: Short to mid-term future architecture outlook
The group were asked to consider a wish list of ongoing directly relevant and related work
to enhance the booking and bridging service, and to feedback on their experiences in
working as a group and with a vendor, the lists below are in no particular order
Enhancements to the current booking and bridging service
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24.
• Develop marketing material for the current booking and bridging service
• Focus on greater adoption and use of video conferencing for teaching, learning and
research needs (e.g. schools to join in via video to experts who present to 13-16
year olds on curriculum subject, this needs funds to coordinate, promotion and
bridging, streaming and recording support to broaden reach and make the talk
available on demand.
• Server monitoring of participating MCUs should be explored with mechanisms to
reallocate ports in the event that a MCU is unreachable at times prior to the start of
a booked conference, in a “just in time” manner.
• Expand the bridging service to support ISDN out dial services via CMP and 1-2-3
booking system to maximise reach to smaller non-academic (non-AARNet) sites
such as medical schools, TAFEs and industry partners.
• Enhanced reporting and the ability to generate billing and charge back / pre-pay
functionality to support ISDN out dial services.
• Firewalls and NAT implementations are a major cause of video conferencing not
working, typical scenarios are one way audio or video, NAT/Firewall traversal best
practice / solutions should be developed and promoted.
• Support for desktop video conferencing services via an ad hoc solution that does not
require bookings is encouraged to address a growing user base due to the
proliferation of cheap headsets, webcams and access to broadband services.
• Video Conferencing and Access Grids co-exist but more needs to be done to bridge
between both worlds in a user friendly way.
• Shibboleth authentication support for booking/bridging services is possible with
integration investment and a federated identity management solution must be the
cornerstone for future access control, scalability and security compliance.
• Streaming services are supported via Codian MCUs, however work to generate
higher quality (HD) streams, with applications that allow conferences to be easily
recorded and accessible on demand in multiple formats including iPOD, is necessary
to leverage existing investments to support teaching and learning.
• In moving from pilot to production services, the group recommends that this should
happen under AARNet's coordination with the following measures in place
o The group wishes to continue to meet on an informal basis via video to
provide feedback on the current platform and advice and guidance on spin off
work and a future platform post 2009
o Adequate support resource is necessary and AARNet’s current 2 FTE allocated
to their National Video Conferencing Service is recommended to operate and
develop the service.
o Maintenance for CMP and MCUs has been uncertain with the Tandberg take
over, AARNet has secured maintenance for the next 3 years, and
participating institutions should consider the same approach for their Codian
MCUs.
o CMP is supported until the end of 2009, AARNet are encouraged to assess
the market and start work to prepare for a new multi-vendor platform
solution post 2009. The MCU review project group will assist AARNet in
identifying requirements for a new solution, with options on segmented
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25.
services that could be free or charged for premium services.
o The costs to operate and run the current booking and bridging services
should continue to be supported as part of the on.net subscription to foster
greater adoption and use as a value add service.
Project group management for future initiatives
• Approximately 6 months of pre-planning with proof of concept tests was a critical
success factor in the scaling up of a sector wide solution.
• The group should factor in the academic timetable in forward planning to take
account of member's priorities at key times such as student enrolment and holidays.
• A focus on the benefits to institutions helped generate interest and participation.
• Line Management support to members varied, better inclusion and support in
providing updates and reports could have improved those who felt they weren't
supported as well as others.
• Attendance lists should be added to AAC reports to encourage greater participation
by all members.
• For various reasons some members dropped off the group, no official methods were
employed to address this issue. Instead, an informal approach seemed to work well
to find new members.
• Too many deliverables within the original work plan unnecessarily complicated
matters and heightened work load, stream lining essential and critical work and
focusing documentation on that required to get a pilot up and running and to
conclude in a final report was sufficient.
Working in partnership with vendors
• The progress made by the group would not have been possible without the sector
wide deal and access to local R&D expertise from Codian/Tandberg.
• The trade off in partnering is that the vendor will gain that participation and the
solution may be locked to that vendor in some way.
• The unforeseen acquisitions of Face-to-Face > Codian > Tandberg led to
uncertainties during the project; luckily these acquisitions enhance the solution and
continue to do so today.
• A focus on open standards in design, a reasonable commercial/partner agreement
and understanding of the bigger picture and commercial realities in a partnership
were important factors in generating a successful venture.
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26.
Conclusions
This report has presented details of work that has led to the delivery of a new video
conferencing booking and bridging service. It was created within a short 18 month
timeframe. The ability of the group to work together often out of normal hours whilst
juggling a variety of conflicting priorities is commended.
The outcomes achieved by the group have gone far beyond that of the review, to deliver a
production ready, robust, resilient solution with a number of spin off works that are now
underway. These include support for recording, ISDN services and desktop video
conferencing on demand (a future project group under consideration).
As the solution is fairly automated, administration and management overheads have been
low. A number of non-member institutions are using the service or are about to; others
have expressed interest in purchasing Codian MCUs or have done so to take advantage of
access to shared MCU ports. AARNet will review the market for a new platform post 2009;
the intent is to support a multi-vendor solution that can be integrated with access to
federated authentication solutions, with redundancy including automatic fail over to another
server, and access to a fine grained reporting and billing system. The management of
institutional endpoints as a managed service will also be explored.
Extensive pre-planning between AARNet and Flinders University coupled with the oversight
of the AARNet Advisory Committee (AAC) as a governance body ensured progress remained
on track and was completed successfully. Ironically, face-to-face meetings to work on tasks
in a collective manner were more productive than via video, as members could focus on the
tasks without distractions.
Line management support to allow staff to attend and participate is commended. Greater
support to future project groups will deliver value added cost effective solutions. Spin off
work identified in this report will also enable a broader range of services.
Vendor support was invaluable to the group's success, it was also a learning curve for the
team to design and develop a new solution. Despite some hardware issues that caused
delays and uncertainty during acquisitions, the group has been able to exceed its remit to
deliver a booking and bridging service that can now be built on.
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27.
Recommendations
The MCU Group wishes to present the following recommendations
• The current booking and bridging pilot service should be officially recognised as a
production service once the CMP redundant servers are located at redundant PoPs
and both AARNet MCU servers are on AARNet3 and located at redundant PoPs. The
current H.323/IP and ISDN (in-dial only) services should be managed by AARNet and
provided as a value add service to AARNet connected customers, funded from on.net
subscriptions (as is the case today).
• The MCU Review group wishes to continue to meet informally via video on a monthly
basis to exchange news, provide feedback on the production service and
advice/guidance on spin off work.
• AARNet should start work to plan for the development of a future platform by
assessing the market and establishing a new group to deliver a replacement post
2009 (when Codian/Tandberg ceases to support the current solution).
• AARNet should explore an ISDN dial in, dial out services as a 12 month pilot to
assess demand and costs to operate it, a joining fee and prepay solution to cover
and credit against hop off ISDN costs is recommended.
• AARNet should support a new project group to address desktop video conferencing
and carbon footprint calculators for video conference use, where possible it should
involve a wider AARNet community base.
• Telepresence should be tracked and considered if a solution is delivered at a
reasonable price point based on open standards with integration to build on
investments made in room based; desktop based standard and high definition video
solutions.
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29.
QoS, Firewalls, Security solutions, End point variability, accounting, billing are also issues
that could be resolved through a number of strategies including AARNet 3 QoS design,
AUSERT Certification, introduction of standards and quality assurance check and
improvements to accounting and billing processes.
Purpose
The MCU Review Project group's major focus is to improve video conferencing within the
R&E sector, through AARNet's Codian MCU system (in partnership with Codian). Our primary
purpose is to review AARNet's MCU, determine future sustainable service offerings and
consider/deploy enhancements. The group will assess and trial technology and systems and
put in place a set of recommendations for the migration to a production ready service that
includes details on how services will be supported and associated documentation. At the
conclusion of 2007 we will have successfully trialed an enhanced and scalable conferencing
system and service; we will have published a business case for the service and another
report on the future direction and further enhancements. We will then be in a position for
AAC to endorse the move to a production ready service for conferencing which will increase
interoperability, improve user support, provide policy recommendations, best practise
information and industry support. .
Benefits to Members
Direct benefits for members will be:
• Increased interoperability through improvements in the MCU service (usability,
support, accessibility, information tracking, recording, booking, scheduling and
accounting).
• Saving money (institutions do not have to buy duplicate equipment to provide
redundancy).
• Increase capacity by overflow to other available MCUs (Options to be in pool or not).
• Standardised services (reduces support and maintenance requirements),
• Shared knowledge, access to regular training, enhanced skills and access to a range
of information (service, technical etc.)
• Shared MCU port resources for Members with Codian equipment.
• Buying club for equipment, systems, software, consulting expertise.
Aims/Objectives
1. To gather a group of experts (ideally with access to Codian MCU equipment) to
review current AARNet conferencing infrastructure and support services.
2. To develop and test new conferencing bridging (and other related products) as part
of a group of Codian MCUs to assess integration of booking systems, scheduling
systems, accounting systems and video conferencing endpoints and provide feedback
to AARNet, AAC and the R&E community across Australia.
3. To support and guide AARNet's new video conferencing support service, including
support to an online knowledge base of video and conferencing information,
training/workshops and the development of quality assurance standards.
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30.
4. To promote awareness and benefits of the MCU service.
5. To consider the impact of future requirements and technical developments in video
and conferencing.
6. To provide a forum for exchanging experiences and knowledge.
Deliverables
Deliverable
Assist with the design, deployment and testing of the new service between AARNet,
1
Flinders University and other trial participants
Trial, assess(and write a report on) a commercial grade booking system that is able to:*
Integrate with typical scheduling applications such as MS Outlook and Groupwise.
• Support the aggregation of ports from MCUs for sharing to optimize Codian MCU
port deployments amongst AARNet and AARNet customers.
• Supply accounting and reporting information that can show details on the use of
conferencing services and spare capacity, information to support cost recovery
2 (billing) at institutions (if applicable), and any interoperability issues encountered
by videoconferencing end points (Ozeconferences).
• (optional) Support multiple forms of access controls to the booking system to limit
use to Australian R&E customers (E.g. shibbolise the booking system).
• Support other MCU enhancements such as IP VCR (video conference recording)
and its storage and distribution.
Subject to a successful trial (Deliverable 2), document a viable business case for a suite
of enhanced MCU services coupled with detail on how to migrate the trial service to a
3
production ready service with details supplied on the infrastructure/systems, service
processes and policy.
Track emerging requirements and technologies that can enhance video conferencing, e.g.
desktop video conferencing services, support for collaboration applications, support for
4
immersive multimedia "telepresence" solutions and support for Access Grids and write a
"video conferencing emerging technology impact and assessment" report.
5 Provide advice on Codian MCU conferencing systems via the public mailing list.
Assist AARNet by providing feedback on current and planned conferencing service
6 offerings, workshops, training courses, quality assurance schemes and in defining
AARNet's video conferencing support service (from a conferencing service perspective).
Goals/Milestones/Activities
1. Start up the MCU Group
a. Review current service and determine key outcomes
b. Confirm charter and workplan with AAC
c. Identify Universities with Codian MCUs and confirm additional participants
d. Survey existing Codian MCU owners
2. Initiate technical setup
a. Install and configure server
b. Setup booking system
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at large, recommendations etc
[3] Should include an insight on experiences in operating project group esp collaboration
positives and highlight on any negatives within/outside (e.g. expectations/pressures on
team members from their mgt)
Note - Rather than attempt to write separate reports to fulfil deliverables, the aim is to
maximise use in the pilot phase and report back in a single report that covers areas
highlighted in the remaining deliverables.
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Appendix 5 - Services Description
The services description document provides an overview of the new pilot service,
highlighting the features and functions that will be made available for testing as part of a
pilot service. The pilot service consists of two visible service delivery solutions to support
Codian MCU Administrators, CAVEs and Registered users in the delivery and use of both
internal MCU services at institutions and for the AARNet conferencing pilot service:
Codian Management Platform
Web based Video Conferencing scheduling and booking system
The services description is available online at
http://www.aarnet.edu.au/library/mcu_service_description-final.pdf
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Appendix 6 - Services Framework
The Services Framework document outlines the roles, responsibilities, eligibility and
operation of a pilot booking and bridging service. The pilot service was a significant
enhancement to AARNet's original video conferencing service.
The services framework document is available online as
An Overview document http://www.aarnet.edu.au/library/MCU_review_group_services-
framework-overview.pdf
A set of frequently asked questions targeted at end user, administrators and technical staff
who would like to know more about the pilot at
http://www.aarnet.edu.au/Content.aspx?p=162
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Appendix 7 – RTC Road show – training content (slides)
Training Slides for NVCS CMP System on AARNet Road show
The AARNet RealTimeComms Road shows in 2007 were held in ACU McAuley/Brisbane
(Qld), University of Newcastle (NSW), Deakin University, Geelong (VIC), University of South
Australia, Adelaide (SA) and The University of Western Australia, Perth (WA).
As part of this 2 day event, an interactive session was run to take participants through the
scenario of registering themselves with the CMP system and initiating a basic booking using
the 1-2-3 system and then further modifying this booking using the advanced interface.
Participants were interested in the developments in the booking and scheduling systems
used for video and teleconferences and the levels of interest were high with regards to the
backend systems used to support the multiple MCU cascading.
Further one-to-one training was organised with interested parties to demonstrate the dial-
out scenario whereby endpoints at the host institutions were registered and a call was made
from the AARNet SD and HD MCUs to call these systems. Also demonstrated was the
approval process for users self-registering onto the system and an explanation of this
approach.
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